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Racial profiling: how ingrained workplace practices can seem neutral when they're anything but

Tomee Elizabeth Sojourner-Campbell: Frontline employees "may believe they’re simply doing their job. Yet they are making unconscious decisions around who the rules apply to and who they don’t."Photo: Peter J. Thompson / National Post

Denise Deveau

Published: December 3, 2018 - 5:56 AM

Racial profiling of customers has been a topic that has plagued businesses for decades, although much of it has been hidden from view of the general public. Recent high-profile incidents that have gone viral on social media however, are placing a brighter spotlight on an issue that is affecting many aspects of customer-facing practices.

“It can happen in so many different areas – in retail, restaurants, banks, airports and hotels,” says Tomee E. Sojourner-Campbell with Sojourner Mediation & Consulting Services in Toronto, a specialist in racism awareness training for employers.

The incidents that make the YouTube circuit are extreme examples of incidents that happen every day in customer-facing situations across the country. For example, a high-end store employee tells a racialized or Indigenous customer they don’t have anything the customer can afford. Or a store worker shadows someone as they browse, targets them for a random search of their bags, or asks them to pay in advance for their meal or other service.

“These may not be something that individuals behind the counter think about,” Sojourner-Campbell says. “They may believe they’re simply doing their job. Yet they are making unconscious decisions around who the rules apply to and who they don’t. The fact is, all kinds of racialized and Indigenous people experience a disproportionate amount of negative experiences.”

A recent Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) report, Under Suspicion: Research and consultation report on racial profiling in Ontario, looked at various treatments experienced by racialized and Indigenous peoples, including in retail and private business. The report also spoke of “less well-understood forms of racial profiling, such as institutional policies, practices, assessment tools, and decision making processes, which may seem neutral but may nonetheless amount to systematic racial profiling.”

A more surprising finding was that the experiences were similar to ones citied in OHRC’s 2003 racial profiling inquiry. What has changed since then, however, is the potential damage to a company’s reputation and credibility should an incident make the social media rounds.

Contrary to what organizations might think, Sojourner-Campbell notes, racial profiling is not something that can be dealt with in diversity training. “The assumption is often that we just need to teach people to be more inclusive. But that doesn’t get to the particular ways consumer profiling happens. They need to be invested in more focused training that brings greater awareness to racial bias. Typically they don’t address the issue until after a complaint is made.”

So how can an organization get ahead of a potential reputational disaster? An important component is orientation and ongoing training, which includes executives, HR and line managers, she advises. “It is not just the issue of treating people with respect, but also what protocols are in place should a customer complain that they are being racially profiled.”

The assumption is that we just need to teach people to be more inclusive. But that doesn’t get to the particular ways consumer profiling happens

Employers should also take the time to review their policies and procedures, she adds. “When doing that, look at them in the context of the law. Ground yourself on the legal consequences in terms of what you are allowed to do or not. It sounds simple, but it’s not something people think about in their day-to-day work.”

While establishing policies and procedures is essential, there is more that employees need to consider beyond following a policy by rote. Training should include a practical component based on what happens when on the job. Taking an applied approach reinforces their ability to offer practical solutions when an incident arises.

“The key is learning to acknowledge and recognize what the person is saying in that moment,” Sojourner-Campbell notes. “Customers should be able feel comfortable when dealing with you. They should also know that if they make a complaint the company will listen and take steps to change their behaviour.”

For business leaders, the heightened awareness on the part of a more vocal public increases the pressure to find better ways to deal with racial profiling behaviours among staff. An important part of that is reconsidering the way in which their workplace culture operates.

“Business leaders have to be deeply mindful of how their people behave in the communities they serve,” Sojourner-Campbell says. “If you say you are a welcoming environment you need to demonstrate it, and that means perceiving racialized and Indigenous communities as a valued part of the environment, and not just a threat. The trouble is that many who don’t experience racial profiling themselves find it hard to believe it happens to others.”